


Alis Aquilae

by Ultra



Category: Leverage
Genre: Awesome Parker (Leverage), Drama & Romance, F/M, Flying, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Happy Ending, Hurt Eliot Spencer, Kissing, Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, Parker Being Parker (Leverage), Promises, Protective Eliot Spencer, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-07
Updated: 2012-05-07
Packaged: 2019-06-13 14:44:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15366915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: When a job goes wrong, Parker must reveal her greatest secret to Eliot, and its something he never could have seen coming.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cybel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cybel/gifts).



> Originally written for the Leverage Reverse Big Bang 2012, at Livejournal, based on art by Cybel - https://archiveofourown.org/works/944987

The job was going too well and they were all acutely aware of it. They ought to be pleased to know their task was almost complete without any trouble for a change, but none amongst Team Leverage were so naive as to think they could really accomplish such a thing. Something had to go wrong, it always went wrong, and that was what Plans B through M were there for. As it was, they were still firmly on Plan A and the job was almost done.

“Okay, I’m at the roof,” said Parker through the comms.

“Excellent,” she heard Nate answer from his place back at the van, where he and Sophie had safely arrived a few moments ago.

“Engine’s running, guys,” Hardison told them. “You got two minutes.”

“I only need one,” replied Eliot as he cleared the front doors. “The only security guys I saw followed me down and I dealt with it. Nobody went up, so you should be fine, Parker,” he assured her as he looked up to see her begin her descent from the top of the building.

She was graceful as a bird sailing down on her rappelling gear, absolutely no apparent fear, and that still astounded him. In his line of work, Eliot Spencer had to appear fearless but at the same time wanted to keep just a little of it around. You got bold, you could get sloppy, think you’re some kind of Superman or whatever. With Parker it was different, she just trusted that she wouldn’t go wrong, and she was right every time.

“Be there in thirty seven seconds,” she calculated as she continued steadily down.

Eliot smiled at her overly accurate timing.

“See ya at the van, darlin’,” he told her, not bothering to wait and strolling around to the back of the tower black where the team were waiting.

He was half way when he heard the sound, an audible creak that could only be one thing. Eliot turned back so fast he almost knocked himself over with the force of the one-eighty, but stayed on his feet the way only someone so agile could.

“No!” he yelled as the crack of cable snapping came through his earbud and literally to his ears in the still of the night.

He rounded the corner already looking to the sky, not sure where down the side of the building Parker would be by now. He got a hell of a shock as his eyes dropped fast from the severed rappelling line, almost to the ground. There was Parker, safe and sound, without a scratch on her... floating a foot off the ground!

“What the...?!” he began but immediately Parker shook her head and turned pleading eyes upon him as she drifted down to the sidewalk and settled on her feet.

The world was once again as it should be, and they stared at each other, neither knowing what to say or do next. It was a full thirty seconds before the chattering in their ears became apparent to either of them. Sophie was practically screaming with hysterics, Nate was repeating his questions over and over.

“It’s fine,” said Eliot loudly to quiet them all down fast, “We’re both fine,” he assured them.

“Then get yo asses around here now!” Hardison encouraged then. “We got, like, thirty seconds to make tracks!”

Shaking himself out of the shock he was feeling, Eliot rushed forward to help Parker get her gear down off the side of the building. The both of them then bolted to the van and jumped inside, just in time, with Nate pulling the door closed behind them as Hardison laid down rubber.

“What the bloody hell happened back there?” asked Sophie in a panic as she turned to look over from the front passenger seat.

“Line snapped,” explained Parker flatly, showing her friend the frayed ends of the thin rope. “That hasn’t happened to me in years,” she mused.

“But you’re not hurt, you’re okay?” Nate checked, wondering how she could have dropped from any height, even a few feet, onto concrete, and not got so much as a scratch to show for it.

“I ran back but...” Eliot began, only for Parker to quickly interrupt.

“And he caught me,” she said, more loudly than he could ever hope to compete with. “Isn’t that great? Eliot came running back like a superhero and caught me so I didn’t hurt myself,” she lied, a huge grin on her face as she looked around at her team, willing them all to just believe her.

“Eliot you really are a hero,” agreed Sophie with a smile and laugh of relief. “How did you make it back so fast?”

“It must’ve been adrenaline,” Parker shrugged as she answered for him, “and, y’know, awesome running legs.”

Nate looked from Parker to Eliot and wasn’t sure what to make of his hitter’s expression. He looked odd, not the embarrassed that one might expect from a reluctant hero, but a different kind of awkward. Nate couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong, but something seemed to be, at least until Parker looked his way, still grinning.

“Thank you, Eliot,” she told him genuinely, going so far as to give him a tight hug.

He hugged her back though he still seemed bewildered by the whole turn of events.

Nate put it down to the shock of everything happening so quickly and thought no more about it as he and Sophie began talking over their latest successful con at the front of the van. In the back, Eliot kept Parker close when she tried to pull away and whispered in her ear.

“Why’d you tell them that?” he asked her. “What’s goin’ on?”

“Just go with it, please?” she urged him, looking at him with pleading eyes when they finally parted.

He didn’t understand, he couldn’t possibly, and right now was obviously not a good time for an explanation. He nodded once, an agreement that he’d let it go for now, but Parker had a feeling it wasn’t going to be so simple to just sweep this under the rug. For now they were okay, and Nate started to include both thief and hitter in his conversation as if everything were normal. It wasn’t though and it never could be now, not for Eliot, who still wasn’t sure he could believe what his own eyes seemed to have seen tonight.

* * *

“Okay, so all’s well that ends well,” Nate finished his debrief with a rarely seen smile, “and I think we all deserve some well-earned rest after that particular job.”

Sophie was already yawning before she ever stood up to leave, it was clear she was going home to bed for probably the next twenty four hours. It really had been a tough job, though Eliot knew he wasn’t going to sleep yet, not until he talked to Parker. She seemed to know he wanted words with her too and was trying to avoid it, since she was out the door before he could turn around. He opened his mouth to call to her but was mindful of drawing more attention than was necessary from the rest of the team. It would be better just to run out after her and catch up, since she couldn’t have gotten far.

“Man, that was down to the wire,” said Hardison as he appeared in front of the hitter then. “Sometimes, we even surprise me with what we can pull off,” he smiled, holding a hand up for Eliot to hive five and fist bump the way they usually did.

The hitter responded in the usual way, but his eyes hardly shifted at all from the door, and his hacker friend noticed.

“Hey, you ain’t gotta worry about Parker,” he reminded him, catching Eliot’s attention at last when he said the thief’s name. “She okay, and that’s because of you, brah. All because o’ you,” he said definitely, almost gratefully in fact.

Eliot didn’t know how to answer so he just forced a smile and said his goodbyes, quickly heading for the door. He couldn’t handle all this gratitude for something he hadn’t done. It was almost as bad as being congratulated for his work in the old days, when the tasks were despicable and nothing for anyone to be proud of. Receiving praise for a job well done that wasn’t done at all was strange and wrong to him. He didn’t like it, but there was little he could do when Nate, Sophie, Hardison, and even Parker kept on telling him what a hero and a life-saver he was. He wasn’t willing to out Parker in front of the team, at least not until he fully understood what the hell had happened out there today.

Now he was free to get an explanation, and that was just what he planned to do. He was out of Nate’s door, down the stairs, and out in the street within a minute, and yet there was no sign of Parker anywhere. He knew she hadn’t come over in her car last night because Hardison had picked her up in Lucille since he was passing her way when fetching supplies for the job. The hacker was still upstairs so she hadn’t left with him, she must have walked.

Eliot considered setting off for the warehouse Parker lived in a not small part of the time, but soon changed his mind when he realised she wasn’t necessarily going to any of her homes right now. Knowing Parker she was feeling as restless as him, even after a long job, and he didn’t fancy shlepping all over town in the early hours looking for her.

It was as he stood outside McRory’s, trying to decide on a plan of action, that he caught sight of a flash of blonde hair heading around the corner. It was a long shot that it was Parker, but Eliot just had a feeling he was right... not least because said corner was two floors up and across the street!

Eliot couldn’t imagine that Parker meant for him to see her, but by the same token, he was sure if she really wanted to hide he never would have gotten the chance. Maybe she wanted to talk about this as much as he did but needed it to be on her own terms. That would be very much in keeping with her character, and his too in a lot of ways, Eliot realised, as he gave chase. Maybe it would’ve been easier to take his truck on this magical mystery tour but the likelihood was Parker would go where no roads existed. Eliot wasn’t as flexible or quite so gymnastic as Parker, but he had the strength, skill, and stamina to keep up with her wherever she decided to go.

It was a pretty long walk down to the docks, and it wasn’t quite the direction he’d expected her to take. There were a lot of old empty buildings down there, but he wasn’t aware she lived in any of them. Her own warehouse that he’d seen before was on the other side of town. To be fair, each of them had more than one home, though they tended to own houses and apartments. Parker just had to be different and own a collection of warehouses, storage facilities, and such.

“C’mon, Parker,” Eliot muttered to himself as he stood between two rows of buildings with no clue where to go next. “Give me a hint...”

No sooner had he said it than he heard the clanging sound of metal on metal and glanced back. A normal sized door swung on its hinges, part of a much larger opening to a huge storage unit. With a smile that was borne out of knowing by now that she really did want him to follow her, Eliot jogged over, checked nobody else was around and let himself inside.

The dark wasn’t a complete surprise, but it took he hitter a little while to adjust, especially after he closed the door on the little light that was coming in from both the moon and the lamps outside.

“Parker?” he called into the black. “What’s goin’... on?” he asked, his question disjointed as a light suddenly broke through, bright and blaring from above.

“You want to know what’s wrong with me, don’t you?” she asked, from up high on a mezzanine level Eliot had barely known was there before.

He opened his mouth and closed it again fast, what he was going to say seeming terribly inappropriate all of a sudden. He said it a lot, that there was something wrong with Parker. In the beginning he had truly believed there was, and then later it had become a playful jibe with no malice behind it. She was different, that was for sure, not exactly the dictionary definition of normal, but he didn’t dislike her for it, in fact he probably cared more about her because of it.

“I just wanna know what the hell happened back there on the job,” he told her at length. “You told the guys I caught you when you fell, and you and me both know I didn’t make it,” he shook his head sadly.

He was glad enough that she was safe and uninjured, it was a huge relief in fact, but inside he was still beating himself up over the fact that he had not been the one to save her. As far as he could tell, there was no logical explanation for how she was okay, and until he really understood it, he was going to keep blaming himself for not being the ultimate protector as he felt he should be.

“You sure you wanna know?” Parker asked then, not moving from her spot up on the balcony, just rocking back and forth on her heels, her hands gripping the rail, shifting her weight as if she were a trapeze artist about to take a leap. “You’re gonna think I’m even crazier than before.” She smiled in spite of herself, that grin of hers so bright he could see it from all this distance away.

“Nah, that ain’t possible,” he teased her. “No way you could get more than twenty pounds of crazy in that five pound bag.”

She rolled her eyes at that, still smiling a moment more. Unfortunately, the jokes couldn’t last. This was a serious conversation, it had to be. The topic was as heavy as they came, a secret Parker had never shared with the team, and with only a handful of people her whole life.

“Short version?” she prompted, at which Eliot nodded once, never really ready for what came next. “I can fly.”

Had Eliot not seen what he thought he saw a couple of hours ago, he’d have laughed at such a stupid and impossible statement. People that flew belonged in the comic books and movies that Hardison enjoyed, or in fairytales his Momma told when he was a little boy. Superman, Peter Pan, Mary Poppins even, but they weren’t real, it just wasn’t feasible for a real person to actually fly.

“Parker, you can’t...”

Eliot got no further than her name and two words when suddenly she was pulling herself up onto the rail and allowing her whole body to tip effortlessly off.

“Dammit, Parker!” he exclaimed as he ran to catch her, forgetting to breathe when he realised she was still several feet above him, floating effortlessly.

There were no ropes, she wore no harness, even in the odd lighting he was sure there were no tricks here, though the larger part of his brain was screaming that there had to be. There seemed to be only one explanation, as illogical as it ought to be, and that was just what Parker had said - she really could fly.


	2. Chapter 2

Eliot stood in the centre of the warehouse, a hand shielding his eyes from the bright light shining from above, watching as Parker floated up there, with all the grace of an angel, but with no wings to show for it.

“Believe me now?” she asked as she began to descend, her arms barely moving at all, just enough to keep her coming down straight in front of him.

Eliot’s eyes followed her, until her careful feet landed by his own. His mouth had dropped open at some point but he’d hardly noticed it until he tried to speak. Not that he really knew what to say. This was insane, absolutely and completely crazy, but then that just suited Parker down to the ground.

“Did I take a hit?” he asked, the question seemingly more aimed at himself than Parker. “I mean, I had coma dreams before, but nobody ever...” he made a gesture with his hand that looked like flying somehow and Parker shook her head.

“Nope, you’re awake,” she told him, demonstrating her point by pinching his bicep as hard as she could.

“Dammit, Parker!” he cursed her for the pain that was tiny but sudden and unexpected enough to almost make him jump. “C’mon, even you’ve gotta admit this a big deal, and a lot for a person to take in.”

She shrugged non-committally at that. Yeah, it was a big deal that she just told somebody a very big secret, but she wasn’t sure why Eliot found it so serious and shocking. He’d lived long enough, he was all worldly-wise and everything. She figured he would be pretty accepting of people no matter what, including abilities that weren’t entirely normal. He didn’t seem to shock too easily up to now. Apparently her being able to fly was a step too far on his surprise-o-meter!

“You’re looking at me funny,” she told him then with more than a hint of distaste. “Like I’m a science project,” she added, backing up a step.

Eliot wasn’t so bothered by her words as the action. The very last thing he wanted was for her to be in any way wary or afraid of him. It wasn’t as if he was going to hurt her because he knew her secret, but he could see why she’d be worried if he was looking at her the way she described.

“Sorry,” he said fast, forcing his face into some sort of neutral state though it wasn’t easy. “I’m just... I’m trying to figure out how this works,” he admitted, pinching the bridge of his nose as a million questions flew through his mind and started to give him a headache.

As if the job hadn’t been tiring enough, and then the shock of what almost went wrong at the end of it. Here they were in the small hours of the morning and he was finding out that the oddest member of Team Leverage was even more out of whack with the rest of the human race than he thought.

Parker could fly.

The words were there in his head and the evidence had been plain to see twice in as many hours, and yet the true meaning of what he’d been told and shown still wasn’t entirely sinking in.

“What’s to figure out?” Parker shrugged like it was no big deal, wandering around like her feet just didn’t know how to be still. “I can fly, that’s all.”

“That’s all?” he echoed as he turned slowly in a circle, eyes following her as she moved, “Sweetheart, there is no ‘that’s all’ about what you just did there, or what you did when that line broke on the job,” he assured her. “You, er... You always been able to do that floating thing?” he said, hovering his hand in front of his face to demonstrate what he meant, as if she didn’t know already.

“As far back as I can remember, more or less,” she explained as she reached the wall and hit what must’ve been a light switch.

Suddenly the whole area was illuminated and Eliot could see sparse furniture and belongings, boxes and crates piled high, all manner of things that might’ve surprised him if he took the time to look. Right now, he wasn’t even paying attention to that, just to Parker who was sat on a lonely couch to one side of the warehouse, looking down at the floor like a kid who just got caught doing something wrong. The fact she was sat at one end suggested she was silently inviting Eliot to join her, or so he assumed.

“How come you never told us?” he asked as he propped himself on the other arm of the couch, mindful of getting too close right now. “Parker, how come you never told me?” he amended, finally succeeding in getting her attention as she looked up.

“I don’t tell people stuff unless I have to,” she reminded him quite snippily, “and it’s not like you’re exactly Mr Shares-A-Lot either.”

“Granted,” he nodded once, finding a hint of a smile because she made an excellent point, “but this is big, Parker, I mean, really big.”

“Not for me,” she told him. “It’s just the way I am, it’s one thing that I can do.”

Eliot had to disagreed with that one.

“No, picking locks is one thing you can do, rappelling is one thing you can do,” he counted off easily. “This is... this is a gift you have. Though I guess it explains why the rappelling is so easy,” he considered.

Parker wasn’t sure how to take it when the very next thing Eliot did was laugh. Of all reactions, the little thief had not really expected him to find her odd ability to be funny. He might be surprised, he might get mad, these were things she knew were acceptable reactions to the fact she could do what she did. Laughter was new.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked then, a distinctly worried look on her face that had Eliot apologising in a second, and fighting to stop himself from further chuckling.

“I was just thinking of all the crap you’ve thrown yourself off and into,” he shook his head as he slipped off the arm of the couch and onto the cushion next to her own seat. “The whole time I’m wondering how you don’t kill yourself and you never even had to care,” he said as he looked across at her, serious again now because in fact this was a pretty serious thing they were talking about. “That early job in Miami, when you leapt out of the window without even knowing if I was there...”

“I’m glad you were,” she cut in, not even sure why she’d said it and wishing she hadn’t when her eyes met his.

Sometimes he looked so seriously at her, Parker couldn’t bear it. Eliot had the bluest eyes of anyone she ever met and one of the most intense stares. It wasn’t that he scared her, he had never once done that, despite his reputation and the acts of violence she’d seen first hand. He could just overwhelm her sometimes with that unwavering gaze - it gave her the shivers in a way she couldn’t describe.

“Just because I don’t need you to catch me,” said Parker then, in a voice that was barely her own, “it was kinda cool that you did,” she admitted.

Eliot smiled at that, one of those rarely seen genuine grins that only certain people in his life ever got the privilege of seeing. Parker was proud to be one of those people.

“Hey, your wings or whatever ever fail you,” he told her, “you know I’ll be there.”

He was serious about that, deadly so, and yet she laughed in response.

“I don’t have wings!” she giggled, clearly thinking he meant such a thing literally. “I’m not a bird,” she rolled her eyes.

“Then what are you?” he asked without thinking, immediately wishing he’d thought it through before the words spilled freely from his lips.

“I’m Parker,” she snapped, eyes liked ice when she glanced at him. “What are you?”

She was up from the couch and away from him before Eliot could hardly react. She couldn’t go far, of course, and he caught her arm as he reached her half way across the open space to the door.

“Parker, come on. I’m sorry,” he apologised fast. “I didn’t mean it that way,” he assured her, something she ought to have known, though he could see why she might take it badly.

He made her an object, not a person, with his words. That wasn’t fair, especially not when she was revealing herself to him like this. This was a huge deal for Parker, he knew it before, and more so now than ever. The rest of the team had no clue about her gift, not one of them, but here she was prepared to let him into her secret world, just a little bit.

“If you don’t mean a thing then don’t say it,” she told him sharply, tears pricking in her eyes that she hated herself for. “Not to me, Eliot, don’t say it,” she warned him.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, genuinely enough, “but, babe, you gotta help me understand this,” he implored her. “It ain’t every person that can just up and... fly,” he said, the very words he was using feeling wrong in his mouth and his brain too if he were honest.

“I can’t explain it, not really,” she shrugged, huffing out a sigh like it was the most exasperating thing having to say anything at all. “When I was a kid I’d just think about floating, flying, leaving the ground basically... and it happened.”

Eliot believed her. He actually believed it was that simple. It was crazy and impossible and illogical, but he knew that if Parker said it was that way, then it was. People had strange gifts, that much he knew. He’d met a few people in his time that could do some things that’d seem strange, alien, or maybe even super-human to others. At least this was nothing dangerous. Hell, the power of flight probably saved Parker’s life more than once, but the secret of it had to be a burden too. Eliot always knew she was different, as well as a kind of crazy, but this was more than he ever could have imagined.

“Are you freaked out?” she asked when he was silent too long, folding her arms defensively across her chest as he was known to do too. “I thought you might be...”

“No,” he told her softly. “I’m... surprised, obviously,” he admitted, “kinda confused, but you’ve known me a long time, sweetheart. You know I don’t lose it so easy.”

She met his eyes then and nodded her understanding.

“I know, but there were others,” she admitted. “I thought they’d be able to handle it, and... and I was wrong,” she shuddered involuntarily, and Eliot hated to consider why that was.

Others had known about this ability she had. As a kid, Parker probably wouldn’t have realised she needed to keep it a secret. Maybe her folks had abandoned her because she scared them, maybe those that would adopt or foster her as a child had abused her precious gift, or told her she was wrong or bad for having it. Eliot wanted to ask, he wanted to know who had hurt her, and how or why. He wanted to fix it all but he knew that he couldn’t.

They’d talked before about the past, not much, but it had come up. She’d had a lot of bad experiences, but she hated to talk on it. She wanted to let go of her messed up past and move on, so he let her be, but this threw a whole new angle on it. Flying might’ve helped her with some of the aspects of her life, her thieving, her get-aways most of all, but not her childhood. It could only have made things harder for her, having to hide. With him, she didn’t have to conceal so much, and Eliot felt proud of the fact he was handling this better than most she’d known.

“I’m guessing I’m one of a privileged few then, huh?” he said, trying to get her to look at him, but she wasn’t eager. “Does Archie know?” he tried, knowing the guy had been the closest thing Parker had to real family before the team.

“No,” she shook her head, mostly staring at her shoes still. “I almost told him a few times, but I was so afraid he wouldn’t want me around anymore if he knew,” she sniffed, though not really showing any signs of really crying. “It was easier to keep it a secret,” she said, meeting Eliot’s gaze then.

“How many people do know?” he asked, tipping his head one way as he watched her face.

“That are still alive?” she checked, taking his slight nod as her answer. “Um... just you,” she confirmed then, knocking all the air out of the hitter faster and easier than any punch to the gut ever could.

She trusted him, she really did. He ought to have known it, the way she allowed him to play safety net or back up to her all the time. She came to him when she wanted to learn self-defence, let him put her in holds she wouldn’t know how to get out of until he instructed her. She ate food he cooked without necessarily knowing what was in it, and she let him take lead on last minute plans sometimes, without question. Still, Eliot never thought much on what that meant until now, until Parker revealed to him a secret no-one else in the living world knew.

“Wow,” he reacted with evident surprise. “Thank you, Parker.”

“For what?” she asked, feeling like she missed something.

“Trusting me that much?” he replied, following her as she wandered away, in amongst the boxes of knick-knacks she had collected over the years. “I know you had to use your ‘gift’ in front of me, but you didn’t have to explain and everything,” he pointed out. “Thank you.”

“You earned it,” the blonde shrugged easily, preferring to keep her hands and eyes busy on other things rather than face the serious conversation they were having. “You really don’t think I’m an alien or something, do you?” she asked as she glanced up then.

“No.” Eliot smiled easily, following her still and realising all of a sudden that behind the assorted junk, some of real value and some not, that they’d reached a kind of ramshackle kitchen, with a working refrigerator in it. “I think you’re Parker,” he told her, thinking fast enough to catch the bottle of water she suddenly pitched at him, “and you’re the same crazy thief I’ve been working with, cooking for, and saving the ass of for the past four years,” Eliot assured her, making her smile at least, he noticed, “’cept maybe you’re even more special than I thought before.”

Parker paused with her back to him then. She was special, and the way Eliot said that made it sound like the nicest thing in the world. Other people who called her special meant it the other way, like she was bad, a monster, or a freak of the worst kind. The way Eliot said special reminded her of somebody else and their way of looking at her.

“Frankie thought I was special.” She smiled at the memory, though Eliot couldn’t see the expression from here. “He thought I was the coolest sister ever,” she added, the crack of emotion in her voice too familiar to bear.

“Your foster brother,” Eliot recalled, though the name wasn’t so well-known to him.

He’d only seen Parker cry a handful of times, but the worst of those was when a fake psychic brought up the tale of her precious foster brother who had passed away. She blamed herself for that, and it pained Eliot like nothing else to see her all torn up about it. Right now he could feel that way again, as she turned red-rimmed eyes to him for all of a second, before diving up the nearest ladder as fast as she could go. Eliot followed her without a thought, not even wondering why she bothered to climb when she could float.

Before long they were sat side by side on the mezzanine, legs dangling through the railings, and the floor a little too far down for Eliot’s liking, but he didn’t let it show. He didn’t speak at all, just sipped on his water while Parker did the same until she wanted to talk again. They were pretty good at companionable silence. They’d done it a lot over the years, though nobody else on the team every really knew.

“I’m pretty sure he thought I was a superhero or something,” she said eventually, clearly still speaking of Frankie. “He asked me to teach him to fly too, but obviously I couldn’t.” She laughed lightly at the memory. “And then I couldn’t save him. Even I couldn’t...” she stopped when emotion stole her voice, but forced herself not to cry.

Eliot couldn’t be sure if she was determined not to be upset at all or just because he was here. It was okay if she wanted to cry and he wanted to tell her so, but at the same time he wasn’t sure he’d know how to deal if she really broke down. He reached an arm carefully around her, mindful of how she might react. He was only mildly surprised when she let her head rest on his shoulder a moment.

“I’m fine,” she sighed, a yawn escaping right after that Eliot clearly noticed, even though she tried to hide that too.

“I should go,” he told her, jostling her head up. “You need sleep, we all do. It’s been a long day,” he admitted, feeling the strains of it himself, if he were honest.

Parker nodded her agreement, getting up when Eliot did and following him back down the ladder and across to the door. He was about to step out when she spoke again.

“You really won’t tell the others, will you?” she double-checked.

Yes, she trusted Eliot, in fact she trusted her whole team, but this was too huge, the biggest secret of her life.

“Not if you don’t want me to,” he swore. “I promise you, Parker, this is our secret, and it’s gonna stay that way. I won’t ever let you get in a place where you have to tell them, not unless you want to.”

Her smile then was bright and glowing as the sun that wouldn’t rise again for a few hours yet, as she thanked him. Parker really was something else, that Eliot had always known, but tonight more than ever had proven it.

“Y’know, for what it’s worth, I think they’d understand,” he told her from just outside the door. “Stuff folks like us have seen? Flying people ain’t the craziest of it.”

“Maybe, someday,” Parker nodded her agreement, “but I like it being our secret for now,” she told him, leaning just inside the door, looking out into the moonlight.

“Sleep tight, darlin’,” Eliot called softly over his shoulder as he turned and walked away then.

Parker watched him go from the shadows, a smile still playing at her lips, until he was far out of sight. She had secrets enough of her own to keep, all by herself in her own little world. Now she and Eliot had a special one between them, theirs and theirs alone, forever. Somehow it made that one secret far less of a burden, and instead something special to treasure.


	3. Chapter 3

Parker was brought up believing she was bad. So many foster parents and social workers and fellow adoptees told her these things, told her she was different and made her believe that was no good thing. The fact was, Parker never wanted to be normal. Other kids did, they wanted to be just what the prospective parents were looking for. Parker wanted to be herself and still be loved, but she learnt fast that it couldn’t happen, not for her.

At least it couldn’t happen when she was a small child. As she got older, she found a man who could care about her. Archie saw her gifts and he knew that Parker was special. He cultivated the talents she showed, for gymnastic moves and stealthy techniques. He made her the best thief in the world, but it was not all that she wanted. She longed to be accepted as more than just his prodigy. She wanted to be family, to be loved like a daughter, a sister, anything. It was not to be.

Here was different. This team was different. There was not another group of thieves like them, or another family like them. It was finally a place where Parker felt at ease, where she knew she was safe. She trusted them and they trusted her, and she never had to be alone anymore. Parker was accepted for who and what she was, without question or worry that things would go wrong, that she would be abandoned or cast out.

Still there remained one part of herself she kept hidden, because even Parker, as crazy as she was supposed to be, understood that this one gift was not going to be acceptable to just anybody. ‘Normal’ people were never going to understand. Even extraordinary people, as those on her team were, might not accept such a rarity, and so Parker kept her secret all to herself, until today.

It had never happened before, a situation that was so close to life and death, in front of another person to whom she must reveal herself. Anyone else on the team, she would’ve had to risk it. With Eliot at least, she trusted him not to freak out, to take her flying ability in his stride as he took everything, to be calm and cool when it mattered and not lose it.

He wanted answers after, and he deserved them after letting her include him in her lie to the team. She trusted him enough, perhaps more than anyone else in her new family, to keep her secrets when she told them. Not that she told him everything, that would be too much, too painful to recount. Mentioning Frankie at all led to tears that even years on she couldn’t control. The whole sorry tale would be a step too far.

Just because she hadn’t spoken of her past too much didn’t mean Parker didn’t think about it. As much as she was happy to know she had shown Eliot what she could do and was still accepted and cared for completely, her heart was aching with the force of all the memories dragged up by the occasion. The warehouse walls started to close in on her and she had to get out. Dressed in her cat burglar gear, her hair tied up under a black hat, she had no fear of being seen, any more than when she was stealing. Getting up to the roof was child’s play, and when she took off into the dark night sky, everything felt better to Parker.

A smile graced the lips of the delicate blonde as she drifted up into the atmosphere. Nobody would notice her, not if she kept away from the high buildings and populated places. She stayed over the docks a while, then went out of town some to the open country beyond the city limits. Up in the far reaches of the night sky, she was soaring like a high flying bird, so free and calm. She was never afraid of falling, she never had to be, not in the whole of her life.

She did not remember the first time she flew, she simply could not recall a time when she was unable to do it. What Parker did remember, with frightening clarity, was the shock and fear on the grown ups faces when she showed them what she was capable of. She remembered the beatings she took when she ‘lied’ about her gift of flight. They would not, could not believe her, even when she showed them the truth. It made her a problem child, strange and weird, unlovable by any would-be parent apparently.

She never found out how she came to be this way. Not knowing who her parents were didn’t help. She could come from a long line of ‘special’ people, or she could be the very first of her kind. She did not understand her own being and she had no-one to ask. For the longest time, Parker wished her gift away and fought against it, until it saved her life more than once. Then she realised that she really was lucky. She knew that it was the others who were wrong, that she was just special, unique, and gifted. She ran away from those that didn’t understand, that would make her feel like such a bad, evil thing for being what she couldn’t control.

When she met the team in Chicago, it was supposed to be a walkaway. She showed her lack of fear in her rappelling, dangling fifty floors up over the bustling town below. Her secret was her own, of course, the real truth about why she was not phased by the height, the wind, the danger she ought to be in. None amongst her team that had fast become a family somewhere between there, LA, and Boston, not one had ever known the real truth about Parker, not until tonight.

Eliot could fly in his own way. He was so graceful when he fought, like a dancer, a deadly one perhaps, but it was still true. He had his own secrets, some he had been forced to share with the group, and others he kept still. That day in the park when they found out he once worked for Moreau, Parker had asked him for his biggest secret, and Eliot had begged her not to make him tell. She agreed because she would not pain him for the world, not like that, but she also knew if she had pressed the point, he would have been honest with her, brutally so, perhaps.

There was a strange trust between them, something that would be hard to explain. She was akin to a bird and he a beast, like some awkward fairytale that couldn’t ever make for happily ever after. Still, they got along, better than Parker had known she could ever get along with any man. She and Hardison were good friends; she once had a foster brother she cared as deeply for as any real sibling; but Eliot was different. He had always been different, and Parker honestly couldn’t say why.

Sailing along in the dark, Parker felt her concentration slipping and her altitude dropping rather more quickly than she was ready for. She put a lot of trust in Eliot tonight, not for the first time, but this had been the biggest instance of it. A part of her wondered, if it came down to the wire, if he would feel the need to at least tell the team about her hidden power. Parker hoped the day never came when that was a factor. She did trust Eliot, she said it and she meant it, but sometimes in a crisis, even the strongest and most trustworthy of people crumbled.

* * *

Eliot wasn’t listening. It was a team briefing for a new job, important information was being discussed, but the hitter had tuned out long ago. A week on and this was the first time he had seen Parker since she let him in on her biggest secret and revealed her ability to fly. As tired as he was, he had lain awake for hours thinking about her and all she had told him. As wacky and crazy as he knew the thief to be, that particular revelation had come completely out of left field.

That night he ought to have slept easily, after a long con that had taken its toll on the whole team. They hadn’t had much of a break in weeks and Nate had declared that now was as good a time as any. Eliot knew he needed the rest, but sleep wasn’t going to come that first night, nor the night after.

There were hours spent wondering how Parker got such a gift as hers, and how she had managed to hide it so long, then Eliot’s mood had shifted. He started to think about Parker’s past, how hard it must have been, how tough. She wasn’t like the other kids, in a much bigger way than he ever could have realised before now. He never could really understand how nobody wanted a girl like her. She was, as he described her, twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag, but he assumed that came after, a result of being unwanted and unloved. Even now she was bright as the sunshine and sweeter than honey when she wanted to be. Eliot couldn’t imagine she was any much different as a kid in those respects, and yet she was always the one nobody wanted.

It was easy for the hitter to understand being the outsider, and yet he hadn’t exactly helped Parker to feel part of the team in the beginning. The more he got to know her, the more he regretted making fun of her, letting her be just the crazy one. Man, she was so much more than that. The fact she wasn’t a whole lot crazier than she appeared now was amazing in so many ways. She wasn’t violent or angry, not even all that bitter about the past that had to have been extremely tough on her. Nobody cared, nobody loved her, and when she told them of the greatest gift she’d been given, things only got worse.

Eliot was at least proud of himself for not losing it when Parker told him the strange but very real truth. Sure, he messed up a little when he asked her ‘what’ she was, but even the best of people were allowed to be a little thoughtless in a time of shock. Eliot had seen a few things in his time, many he wished he hadn’t, but a person who could fly was definitely a first. It didn’t freak him out, not really. It wasn’t so easy to explain, but then neither was much of human behaviour, he had found. It didn’t really matter how or why Parker could fly the way she did, it only mattered that he knew now. She would be so much easier to protect now he had all the information.

When she looked his way, clearly having felt him staring, she looked a little worried. Eliot smiled a genuine smile, a reminder of their genuine friendship, odd as it was, and the promise he made to always keep her secret just that, if it was what she wanted. Even the team, their pseudo-family, would not hear it from him, that was what he said and he meant every word. She seemed happy enough after a moment and smiled back at him, before being a good girl and turning rapt attention to Daddy Nate and his latest plan.

It was her reaction that reminded Eliot maybe he ought to be listening too. Not knowing his proper role in the con could only lead to badness of the broken ribs and black eye varieties, all stuff he could easily deal with, but it was still better if he didn’t actually have to suffer for his art. It didn’t stop his mind wandering back to Parker, not least when he realised that Nate’s suggestion of her rappelling on their latest job was met with resistance from Hardison.

The hacker was a little besotted, that much was true, and Eliot couldn’t really fault him when it came to trying to keep Parker out of trouble. The problem was, Hardison wasn’t half so good at that as Eliot himself. The hitter was made for trouble, causing it and dealing with it both. Besides, all the other guy was achieving by suggesting Parker not do what she was born to do, was to make her mad.

“Hardison, let it go,” said Eliot himself when a debate started up that none of them needed. “Best thing to do when you fall off a horse is get back on,” he said, years of experience talking, both with the horse and without. “If Parker stays off her lines too long just ‘cause she had some freak accident, she’ll end up too scared to ever do it again.”

“Thank you!” exclaimed Parker, grateful for someone on her side, and more than that pleased to know that Eliot really wasn’t going to forsake her.

He could have easily used her ability to fly as an argument for her to keep on rappelling or whatever. When he got mad, she fully expected it to slip out, but no. She ought to have known better, even in moments of fury she had seen the grace and control Eliot could find in a phyicsal fight. If he didn’t lose it then, it was doubtful he was going to just talking, not even with Hardison who could wind him up faster than anyone on the planet. Parker always figured that was just because they cared so much for each other, like brothers.

Parker wasn’t sure how she saw Eliot herself. He was kind of like a brother to her too, protective and all, but then he would look at her some times, when she was all dressed up nice for a con, and there was a decidedly non-brotherly look in is eyes that even she understood. She saw it and she knew she wore the same expression, those times when he got hurt or just sweated a lot working out and his shirt got stripped off. Yeah, those were good times, moments when she was glad he wasn’t really her brother.

Parker was pretty sure there wasn’t a word for what she and Eliot were to each other. More than friends, but not actually family. Somewhere in between without a label, the way she had always felt she never fitted into a category herself. This was better though, a nice kind of non-fitting entity that they had become.

Eliot felt the same, of course, though neither of them ever spoke of such things. They were not the talking kind if they could help it. They were people of action and that was just one of the many reasons they got along, he suspected, why they had come to understand each other and work together so well.

In a lot of ways, Parker was just as strong as Eliot, though it wasn’t as obvious to people on the outside of the circle. Not that she couldn’t hold her own in a fight, because she was quite capable, not least since he had given her some training, but what he saw was a strength within her, a survival instinct, the part of her that kept going despite all the odds, all the crap life had thrown at her. That was where Parker’s real strength lay, and that was what made her more special than even her ability to soar through the skies unaided.

“Okay, so are we all clear on the plan?” Nate asked, catching Eliot’s attention fully at last.

He had heard most of what he needed to know. His mind was quick enough to be thinking on more than one thing at once, it had to be for the kind of person he was and the kind of job he was required to do. They would go work this con and work it well, hopefully without incident this time around, though he never really believed any plan would go without a hitch. Fear and trepidation kept you on your toes, it was good for a body to be that aware. Of all people, Eliot was sure Parker understood that better than anyone else on the team. They really had so much more in common than he ever realised, until he spent enough time thinking on it, with one major difference, of course - he couldn’t freakin’ fly!


	4. Chapter 4

When it came to pairing off for jobs, it was usual for Eliot and Parker to wind up together. Sometimes it was just practical, other times it was more of a choice, though the rest of the team didn’t seem to pay much mind to the fact they almost always ended up together for their work. It made too much sense to be strange. Parker was usually doing something sneaky with a risk of being caught by the bad guy’s goons. That was where Eliot came in, to cover her back and keep them away while the thief finished her task of safe cracking, file lifting, whatever needed to be done. Hardison and Nate were almost always in the van, or one of them partnered Sophie in the grift. It was just a pattern they seemed to fall into for most of their jobs and it made Eliot and Parker even closer than before.

It had been a month or so since she had revealed her ability to him, the gift of flight. They never really talked about it again after that first night, it just never came up. Eliot figured they had said all they needed to say, and if she ever needed a shoulder, just someone to turn to, he had made it clear he was there. If she didn’t bring it up, he didn’t feel the need to. Parker was just grateful to know her secret was safe with the one man in her life she had ever trusted this much.

“Hey, Eliot,” she teased him from over the banister rail five floors up. “If I jump, could you catch me?”

“Stop messin’ around and get your ass where it’s goin’,” he told her mock-sternly, as he hefted the unconscious form of a security guard into the storage closet and closed the door.

“Yes, sir,” she mocked him with an over-done salute and then hurried off giggling to herself.

“Kids, can we save the playground games for later?” said Nate in both their ears. “Hardison just tripped the locks on the upper floor, so let’s get that evidence and get out before Sophie loses her grip on the other mark.”

“Thanks so much for your confidence in me,” the grifter muttered behind her hand before continuing to play her part in the boardroom of the business next door.

Eliot rolled his eyes at the bickering of his team-mates and ran to catch up to Parker. He found her outside the main door to the top level of the building, peering around to make sure it was safe. She shushed the hitter when he tried to speak, then gestured for him to follow when she was sure the coast was clear.

“The security cameras are covered, they seein’ empty hallway no matter what you do,” Hardison assured them through their earbuds.

“Fourth door on the right, guys,” added Nate. “Just grab the files and get out.”

Eliot and Parker slipped down the corridor unnoticed, then he kept watch outside the door when she went in to get the information they needed. The door had barely closed behind Parker when she spoke in all their ears.

“Er, guys? We’ve got a problem...” she told them, prompting Eliot to come rushing in after her.

The thief was just a couple of steps inside the door and he ran straight into her back, grabbing onto her when he realised he almost knocked her flying. She was right, they did have a problem.

“Dammit, Hardison!” Eliot complained through the earbuds. “This ain’t filing cabinets filled with paper, it’s computer files!” he told the hacker crossly. “How did you not know this was a server room?”

There was much muttering from both Hardison and Nate, and a vague amount of panic from Sophie, as they tried to figure out what had gone wrong. They had been so sure that the old company files would be in paper form, it didn’t seem to have occurred to anyone they would have upgraded and put them all onto computer servers that filled a room. There was next to nothing Eliot or Parker could do, this was a job for Hardison, and that meant getting out and starting over later with a new plan to either get the hacker into the building or set-up remote access of some kind.

“This was pointless,” Parker muttered as she squeezed past Eliot and out of the room.

He followed a moment later, shaking his head at how dumb this all was. He hated when plans got screwed up. It really didn’t put him in a good mood to have his time wasted like this, and besides, the longer they spent screwing around on a job, the more dangerous things got, the less chance there was of completing the con and getting the victim some money or revenge or whatever they needed.

Parker started down the stairs, and Eliot was about to follow when he sensed something was wrong. Suddenly, he was not alone anymore, as four guys appeared out of the adjoining doors, all big and dangerous-looking, and none too happy either. The hitter looked from one side to the other, and then glanced down at Parker. With a tiny movement of his eyes he told her to go, to leave him to do what he did best. He knew she wouldn’t want to but she would do as she was told. She trusted him to protect her, just like always, and that mattered a lot right now.

“Oh, good - company,” said Eliot sarcastically as he faced his attackers.

From the van, Nate winced with each punch and kick. He was almost glad he couldn’t see what was happening, but having to rely on what Eliot could tell him between blows, not knowing exactly how much damage was being done to his hitter, it was no easier for the mastermind to handle.

“This is crazy!” Hardison declared as he ran what appeared to be some kind of electrical scan of the building they were outside of. “It’s like they gone completely digital, that’s not... Aaw, hell no!”

The hacker’s rambling ended with a sudden and loud exclamation, that even drowned out the sounds of the fight upstairs for a moment.

“Hardison, what is going on?” asked Parker frustratedly. “Those security guards aren’t security,” she said definitely. “Nate, I think Eliot’s right, that they work for Sanderson.”

“Most likely you’re both right, Parker,” the mastermind confirmed. “Hardison, what’s going on?” he asked when his team-mate didn’t respond to Parker’s question fast enough for anyone’s liking.

“Nate, I think we underestimated what he was capable of,” Hardison told him, eyes still fixed on the screen as he typed madly on his keyboard still.

“Sanderson?” the mastermind checked, but his hacker shook his head in the negative.

“No, the other guy; Bradley,” he confirmed. “Those guys ain’t Sandersons, I still got them downtown at the warehouse, GPS don’t lie,” he rattled on, “and that ain’t even the weirdest part, there’s something hinky on the roof.”

“The roof?” echoed Parker as she appeared at the van door, so suddenly she almost succeeded in giving Nate a heart attack.

“Yeah, there’s some device up there. It’s not a bomb, it’s pure electrical, I can’t...” 

Hardison struggled to figure out what he was seeing, until suddenly his eyes went wide.

“Guys that’s an EMP device!” he exclaimed. “Bradley ain’t gonna go down easy, he’s gonna wipe the electricity to the whole building, erase all the computer files we need to prove what’s up with him and Sanderson,” he declared in a panic.

“Can’t you stop it?” asked Parker frantically, looking towards the building with even worse panic when she heard a terrible clattering in her earbud. “Eliot!” she called out to him, but the hitter was barely fit to answer.

“Er, Eliot, can you hear us?” asked Nate then, trying to be calm but just about as worried as his team-mates right now - that was not a good sound.

“Stay down!” the hitter was heard to shout at last, breathing heavily and harshly, like he was in a lot of pain.

It was enough to make the girls want to cry, and the guys weren’t any less worried about their friend who had clearly taken a lot of punishment, and quite possible fallen down some stairs. The noises of punches and kicks and such had at least ended. The fight seemed to be over.

“I’ll live,” he told the team over the comms. “You want me to head down?”

“Somebody gotta head up,” Hardison replied, getting everyone’s attention. “Nate, I can’t stop this thing on the roof, I just, I can’t. It needs to be shut down at the source, and it needs to be now,” he declared. “Couple of minutes and we could be too late.”

It all came down to this. Somebody had to get to the roof and it had to be now. Parker knew what her decision ought to be, but feared letting it be true. Right in this moment, she just wanted to curl up in ball and wish the world away, but she couldn’t. The client needed this, her team needed help, the team Parker had come to look on like family. That didn’t change the fact that she was reluctant in letting them in on the biggest secret of her life.

“Parker,” said Eliot in her ear, hoarse and choking for reasons she could only imagine and wished she couldn’t. “You don’t have to,” he told her, but she knew he was wrong.

“Yes, I do,” she replied, a crack in her voice that only the hitter could truly understand.

Nate, Sophie, and Hardison all started talking over each other, too loud and too much for Parker to handle right now. This was the biggest choice she ever had to make and yet she could see only one way to go, and that was quite literally up. The fastest way for anyone to get to the roof was for her to fly, and she knew it. The others would never make it in time, not even Eliot if he was so badly injured.

“I have to do this,” she muttered to herself, momentarily forgetting the comms as she forced those voices out of her mind.

She was just about to take the earbud out completely and make her ascent when one voice rang through above all the others.

“I’m already half way there,” said Eliot, breathless and struggling, and she knew it.

It was true. The hitter felt like he was dying, and the truth was he just might be. He knew those goons had bust at least a couple of ribs, and every step was agony between that and his knee that had hit concrete all too hard when his legs were swept out from under him. Limping, crawling, bleeding, coughing, it was the most pain he’d suffered in years, but he kept on going.

“Eliot, don’t!” Parker cried in his ear, all he heard, despite the fact the others were caught between encouraging and worrying about him themselves. “I can do it.”

“No,” he repeated. “I made a promise,” he reminded her, each word more painful than the last, and followed by a wheezing breath as he cleared the stairs at the top level of the building.

Parker felt tears streak down her face as she ran in through the door and pelted up the stairs as fast as her legs would go. She couldn’t believe what Eliot was willing to sacrifice to keep her secret. She knew the promise he spoke of, she remembered it like yesterday though it was weeks ago now. It wasn’t just that he would never tell the others about her ability, it was so much more. He had sworn to protect her and her secret both, by never putting her in the position she felt she was in today, forced to show the world what she had always hidden so carefully. He refused to allow her to sacrifice herself in any way at all, not if he could prevent it. Eliot had probably damn near killed himself for the sake of the promise he was desperate to keep to her, and it tore at Parker’s insides to realise how much he was truly willing to suffer just for her. Nobody in her life was ever so dedicated or cared so much.

With her legs pumping faster than ever before, Parker was leaping up two steps at a time in a bid to make it to the roof for Eliot’s sake. He would be there by now, the job would be done, and she knew it for sure when he confirmed it with Nate. Still, he was going to need help. There was no way in hell the hitter would make it back down alone after the struggle to even get up those ten floors. Crashing through the doors onto the top level, Parker threw herself at the roof access ladder and came barrelling through the next door a moment later.

“Eliot!” she all but screamed as she ran to him, just as he dropped to his knees perilously close to the edge of the flat roof.

Throwing herself down beside him, the weight of his body falling into her arms knocked Parker onto her butt, but she didn’t feel a thing. A glance at the electrical device beside them showed her it really was disabled, the task complete, but right now she could barely care about that.

Parker hardly noticed blood soaking into her clothes or the sound of the rest of the team screaming in her ear. All she knew was Eliot, and his bright blue eyes that threatened to roll back in his head at any moment.

“Please, don’t die,” Parker begged of him, holding him tight to her, as if sheer will alone would keep him alive.

“I... I kept...” he struggled to speak, coughing and choking until he finally found enough breath, “kept... my promise,” he forced out.

In a moment, he was gone.


	5. Chapter 5

It had been a rough time, one of the hardest Parker remembered going through, and that was saying something. She didn’t know she could hurt like this, not since she was a kid, not since she lost Frankie. Parker always knew there was a flaw in the plan when it came to getting close to people. It was great when things were good, when everyone was keeping each other safe, caring and sharing, lending a shoulder to cry on or teaching a new skill. They were more of a family than a team these days, all for one and one for all, and Parker never said the words but she loved every one of them – Nate, Sophie, Hardison, but most of all Eliot.

She loved him more, differently, it was hard to explain. She knew it probably wasn’t fair for her to care more for him than the others, and for the life of her Parker couldn’t ever explain how it happened. It was just there, inside of her, a big piece of her heart that was only for the hitter with his own heart of gold.

Of all the people in the world, he had been the one to discover her deepest secret, which she had gone on to explain to him the best she could. He was shocked, but then she guessed she should have expected that. Parker knew it wasn’t normal for people to fly. She never did meet another person that could do it. Well, there was a girl once that said she could, but that had been a tragic lie within her own mind, and she was best not thought of, for fear of tears threatening again.

Parker had cried too much these past days, cried over Eliot and all that he meant to her. She never knew a person take a promise so seriously. He was so completely determined not to let her down in any way at all. Parker never had that before, not the whole course of her life, until he came along and showed her how decent and caring and wonderful people could be for each other sometimes.

It would have been easier to let the truth come out, so much less painful if he had let her do what must be done, and fly to the top of the roof that wasn’t half so high as this one she was sat upon now. He was so beat up before he ever started the climb up too many stairs, and it broke Parker’s heart to hear him struggle.

The team had started screaming, even as she pelted after Eliot and met him on the roof at last. He had done it, disabled the EMP device and saved the con, only then allowing his body to give out on him. The only thing he was more dedicated to than the job was keeping Parker’s precious secret.

Lying in her arms, spitting blood and barely breathing, he smiled proudly because he had retained that promise he swore to keep. She smiled too because she could hardly believe how much he must care about her to do that. He would suffer all this just to be true to her, and Parker’s heart had all but broken in two when she realised it might be the last thing Eliot would ever do in this life time.

“Figured you’d be up here,” he said behind her then, and she turned with a bright smile gracing her lips, the one she reserved especially for Eliot alone.

“Figured right,” she told him, moving over a little so he could come sit beside her near the edge.

Eliot’s injuries were barely noticeable when he moved now. He was a fast healer, he had to be in his line of work, but when he levered himself down to sit it was clear he was still in some pain. Parker didn’t say anything, because she knew he wouldn’t appreciate it. The man was insisting he was fine, even when Nate was checking him over on the day it happened, cataloguing half a dozen broken bones in his rib cage alone. Eliot was a walking bruise without his clothes on even now, strapped as best he could be around the ribs and a sling holding one arm until just a day or two ago. He insisted he was fine, even though they all knew he wasn’t. Only Parker ever gave him any peace about it though. She guessed she owed him that much, and so much more.

“You cold?” asked Eliot, ever the gentlemen and thinking of her before himself.

Parker shook her head, no. The coolness of the night never bothered her, she doubted it ever would. Nights living on the street years ago taught her to be resilient, she supposed.

They sat in comfortable silence then, something they rarely ever found with anyone else. Most people found it necessary to talk when in company, even if that meant rambling on about some crap nobody cared about. Hardison was often guilty of it, even Sophie could be accused. Nate did quiet pretty well, but it wasn’t usually comfortable, because drink was often involved and the atmosphere grew awkward. With Eliot and Parker, companionable silence was nice enough. They just sat and looked out at the view together, neither speaking nor moving for the longest time, until suddenly he felt her head drop onto his shoulder.

“I don’t know how to say it,” she said, almost too quietly to be her own voice.

“Say, what?” Eliot asked, his hand coming up, fingers running absently through her long blonde hair.

They hadn’t been alone long enough to talk about this yet, about what happened that day. It seemed now was as good a time as any.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, face screwing up into a frown as she thought harder. “I just… I guess I just wanna say thank you,” she admitted after a while, “but that’s so little, and pointless” she observed. “Like, two little words when… when you could’ve died for me”. 

Mentioning the ‘d’ word had not been a good plan, Parker realised too late, as tears welled in her eyes and emotion took her voice away. She thought she was done crying. After the first day or so when things with Eliot were kind of touch and go, she thought she was okay, but then there were tears of relief and of joy that he was going to be okay. So much emotion that Parker was just not used to having inside her, whooshing around like she was a spinning washing machine. Even now things were getting back to normal she seemed to have little or no control over how she was feeling, and it bothered her more than a little.

“Hey,” said Eliot, encouraging her head up off his shoulder so he could look at her. “I’m still here,” he reminded her, wiping a stray tear off her cheek with his thumb, wondering once again at how comfortable she seemed to be in getting close to him when she would shy away from so many others, or worse, lash out.

“I know,” she nodded, going so far as to lean into his touch, “but I was so afraid you... you’d be gone and after everything… I don’t think I know how to be without you anymore,” she admitted, “and it’s scary and weird and I don’t like feeling this way, but I can’t help it,” she tried to tell him, knowing she was failing miserably at making sense, just like so many times before. “Do you even understand what I’m saying? I’m not sure I do,” she sighed, feeling so incredibly inarticulate and dumb.

“Yeah, I get it, darlin’,” he promised her. “I do.” He smiled as he pulled her close.

She hugged him as tight as she dare, knowing she would hurt him if she wasn’t careful. Parker didn’t do comfort, didn’t give it and didn’t want it from others, at least that’s what it would seem like to an outsider. She alone knew better, at least until Eliot came long. They knew each other, from the day they met they seemed to know. It was an unexplainable, undefined connection, and over the years it had only gotten stronger. He was the only one who seemed to really know when she needed somebody close and when she needed to be alone. She could tell the same about him, though anybody else’s moods and feelings baffled her, to even include her own sometimes.

“Promise me you’ll never die on me,” she begged him, words muffled because her face was buried in his T-shirt still.

“Sweetheart, you know I can’t promise you that,” he reminded her, moving back to see her face, lifting her chin with his finger, “but I ain’t plannin’ on checking out of here any time soon, okay?” he told her. “I can promise not to leave you any other way, and I do,” he swore, “but that’s the best I got, darlin’.”

She nodded that she understood. Of course he couldn’t promise not to die, nobody could do that, but she really wished it were possible. She wished that through sheer force of will alone she could keep Eliot with her always and forever. The promise he had made was enough for now. It would take death to part them, nothing else would ever come close.

“Wait a second,” she said, with a look of confusion then. “If we promise not to leave each other 'til death… Are we married now?” she checked.

She asked so earnestly, so innocently, completely without sarcasm or an angle to play. Eliot almost laughed, not at her because she was dumb, but just because she was so damn adorable sometimes.

“No, Parker, we’re not married,” he assured her, kissing the top of her head. “Anyway, what we’ve got’s tougher than folks that get married. You got an Eliot Spencer promise, that’s the most binding contract on the planet, sweetheart,” he assured her with a smirk.

“If I don’t know that by now,” she said solemnly, reaching out to run her fingers lightly over the bruises that still marred his face. “I still can’t believe you went through all that just to keep my secret. Not that I didn’t trust you,” she shook her head quickly, “but… even I didn’t know you were that amazing.”

Eliot actually chuckled at that. He could take a compliment as well as the next good-looking, well-built guy, but this was a little weird. Parker thought he was amazing, not because he could beat up four guys without breaking a sweat, not because he could bench press twice his own weight, not even because he was wanted in a whole bunch of countries and never once been caught. She thought he was so special because he kept a promise to her, one so important that he almost died to keep it. It was actually a little amazing to him too, not that he could take the punishment he had to endure, but that he could love someone as much as he knew he loved Parker.

He hadn’t tried to define it before, whether it was a romantic thing or more familial. No matter what place he tried to slot Parker into in his life, she never quite fit. She was too hot to be his sister, meant too much to be just another lover. It was like whole new rules had to be made just to fit Parker into his life, and what shocked Eliot more than anything was how he was so willing to rewrite the world he knew just to make space for her. She was that special, meant that much, and all this was true before he ever knew her secret.

“You think I’m amazing?” He shook his head. “That’s all you, babe, and I’m not talking about the flying thing,” he assured her. “All the stuff you’ve been through, and you’ve come through it stronger than any woman I ever met,” he told her, brushing her hair off her face and keeping her looking at him even as she tried to duck away, embarrassed for perhaps the first time in her life by anyone or anything.

“You’ve got more talent for thieving than I could learn in a life time, and you’re one of the nicest, sweetest people in the world, even when you’re breaking the law with a smile on your face,” he told her with a grin. “It’s like most of the people you ever met in your life tried to knock you down, but you said no, and you got back up. That makes you just as strong as I am, Parker, maybe stronger, ‘cause you got all that on the inside, where it really matters.”

Parker couldn’t get the stupid grin off her face as she stared back at him then. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say or do when Eliot was being so sweet to her. Guys didn’t compliment her, they complimented Sophie and women of similar style. She was just Parker, and yeah, people respected her for the work she did and told her she did it well, but that was all. This was a whole other thing, this was like something out of a movie with the moonlight and the moment.

“Eliot?” she said more quietly than she meant to. “Are you going to kiss me?” she asked in all innocence, not even sure why she thought so and half-convinced he would laugh next and tell her she was crazy for suggesting it.

“Are you gonna stab me if I try it?” he asked, the corner of his mouth lifting in a half a smile.

Parker shook her head solemnly and braced herself for a moment she wanted to happen and yet scared the living daylights out of her at the same time. She’d been kissed before, but it had never really ended well. Usually she initiated any kind of making out, and that was pretty much always for cover on a con, as Hardison would attest. She and Eliot had never done more than hug, and yet she felt closer to him than anyone else in her life right now. Parker wasn’t sure what to expect when he leaned in closer and she anticipated his lips landing on her own.

It felt strange at first, her brain screaming ‘This is Eliot, and he’s kissing you! You’re being kissed by Eliot!’, but those and all other thoughts soon left her entirely as she fell into a moment she didn’t want to find away out of. For a man built for violence and pain, he could be so surprisingly gentle, this Parker already knew but Eliot proved it to her all over again in the way he kissed her, a sweet moment that didn’t even last as long as she had hoped for. She found herself almost tipping over on top him when he suddenly pulled away, leaving her wanting.

“Wow,” she gasped in air, her eyes opening up to the world that she was barely aware she had left for a few moments.

“Should I take that as a compliment?” Eliot smirked a little, unable to help it, even in what ought to be a pretty serious moment.

“Yes, you really should,” confirmed Parker with a smile of her own. “I didn’t know I could feel that way when I wasn’t flying,” she admitted truthfully.

It was one of the very rare occasions when Eliot Spencer almost looked embarrassed.

“That is a heck of a compliment, darlin’,” he told her. “Though I gotta say, didn’t feel so bad from my side either,” he admitted, running his fingers through her hair and then letting his hand come to rest at her cheek. “’Course, I don’t know what flying feels like exactly.”

“You want to?” she offered, not even sure how the words had come to spill out of her mouth so suddenly like that.

Parker never flew with anyone else before, not even her beloved foster-brother when he begged and pleaded. She was afraid of something going wrong, of him getting too excited and letting go of her hand, and then falling. She didn’t trust her own abilities so much back then either, when she was so young. Things were different now, she felt she had some control and she trusted in Eliot even more than she trusted in herself to make it all be okay somehow.

Eliot himself wasn’t really sure what to say. He wasn’t crazy about heights, they both knew that, but this was Parker and her offer to him was a huge deal. No way could he bear to hurt her by saying no. Besides, this was pretty much the opportunity of a life time.

Slowly, he nodded his head, finding it easier than actually speaking. They both got to their feet then, and taking a hold of his hand, Parker led Eliot to the centre of the roof.

“I’m not sure... I think this will work,” she admitted, seemingly muttering more to herself than to Eliot as she positioned herself facing him, and locked her arms with his, her hands gripping tight near his elbows, and his positioned the same way on her. “Ready?” she asked.

“I guess, yeah,” he nodded his agreement, holding on to as tight as he dared but wary of hurting her if he let his grip tighten too much.

All of a sudden, Eliot felt the ground go from beneath his feet. He glanced down and realised they were indeed hanging in mid-air, just a foot above the surface of the roof they’d been stood on a moment before, but it might’ve been a mile. Eliot wasn’t exactly loving it and they’d only just begun, but the broad smile on Parker’s face was enough to calm any fears he had about falling and dying right now.

It was one thing for her to share her gift with him by telling him all about it, it was a whole other ball game showing him how it worked, letting him know how it felt to do this. They rose a little higher and circled around above the roof, never actually going over the edge at all, which Eliot really appreciated. They might’ve just been dancing, if there was music and something solid under their feet, but as weird as it felt it was kind of nice too, and Eliot felt a lot less freaked out by the whole thing by the time they came in for a landing back where they started.

“That’s... that’s really some feeling,” he said, just a little giddy from the sensation.

“Uh-huh,” Parker nodded, as they let go of each other arms a moment, shaking out the their aching muscles from holding on so tight before. “Flying is the best feeling... well, maybe second best now,” she admitted, as she tentatively moved in closer.

“Only maybe, huh?” Eliot teased her, knowing what she meant and not exactly willing to argue too much as he slid his arms around her body and pulled her close.

When he kissed her again and she responded with everything she had to give, Parker felt as if her feet left the ground all over again, even though she knew they hadn’t at all. The truth was, Eliot felt much the same about it. It occurred to Parker, in the misty haze before her mind went blank in the best way, that she wasn’t the only person in the world that could fly. Anyone could do it, if they just let themselves fall in love with the right person.


End file.
